Tiffany Studios lantern lights up $133,100

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – A Tiffany Studios Moorish-style hall lantern, 34 inches tall, with

an excellent original overall gilt finish, lit up the room when it finished at $133,100 during a cataloged auction held Feb. 28 at Fontaine’s Auction Gallery, in the firm’s gallery located at 1485 West Housatonic Street in Pittsfield, Mass.

The hall lantern was the top lot in a sale that grossed $1.1 million. Coming into the auction with a presale estimate of $20,000 to $30,000, the unsigned hall lantern had a tapered cylindrical form, a fiery amber, gold and opaque glass geometric fish scale body, a 12-point feathered crown, a domical top and lower door, and a border of 25 amber jeweled cabochons (12 on the crown, 9 on the dome above the crown).

Many of the sale’s 400 lots sailed past their estimates as bidders fought over Tiffany Studios floor lamps, hanging lamps, table lamps and pendants; Tiffany Favrile glass vases and cabinet pieces; lamps by Duffner & Kimberly, Handel and Pairpoint; art glass shades; and bronze creations by artists like Harriet Frishmuth, Stanislas Grimaldi and Vassili Grachev. Following are additional highlights of the auction. All prices quoted include a 21 percent buyer’s premium.

Nearly everything from Tiffany Studios proved irresistible to bidders. A Tiffany Parasol table lamp with a large, 24-inch saucer-shaped shade having a 12-row geometric pattern in dark mottled green glass soared to $48,400; while a Tiffany Tulip table lamp with domical shade having a background with blue translucent hammered textured glass hit $39,325. A double-signed Tiffany drop-head Dragonfly floor lamp, 64 inches tall and having a 22-inch domical shade with an opaque and yellow mottled background with jeweled amber glass cabochon highlights with damage finished at $66,550; and a Tiffany bronze counterbalance desk lamp with a trumpeted artichokestyle base and signed “L.C.T.” on the base, made $29,040.

A signed Tiffany & Co. 18 kt yellow gold, diamond and gemstone bracelet, 7 1/4 inches long, with 21 bezel set large carved green gemstone center mounts bordered by more than 400 pavé set diamonds, reached $38,720; while a large, 13-inch Tiffany Favrile iridescent art glass globe in the King Tut pattern changed hands for $16,940. A Tiffany turtleback bronze hanging hall lantern with a rectangular form and a pyramid top, pierced decorated with three coils in each top panel and the original ceiling canopy, 24 inches tall, used as an outside porch light, breezed to $30,250; and a set of four Tiffany figural bronze wall sconces, rare and unusual, with an inverted figural dolphin holding a scallop shell in its mouth commanded $29,040.

Two bronze creations from Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (Conn./N.Y., 1880-1980), one titled “Reflections” (16 inches tall), and the other “The Star “(19 inches tall), hammered for $19,360 and $15,730, respectively. The former, signed and dated (1930) was a bronze nude figure of a woman, standing on a round plinth, with daffodils. The latter was also a figural nude bronze. A bronze grouping signed by Vassili Grachev (Russian Federation, 1831-1905), 20 inches long, a snow-covered scene of a troika drawn by a team of horses passing a peasant in a sled riding in the opposite direction, fetched

$12,705; and a 19th century bronze sculpture of a man riding in a horse-drawn, two-wheel carriage, by Stanislas Grimaldi, titled “Tilbury” (1886), brought $14,520. The star lot of the furniture category was a monumental walnut marble-top partner’s desk and chair that ended up bringing $21,780. The desk had a black marble top inset with a gadrooned and leaf-carved walnut top border. The sides of the desk had large, full-standing female figures leaning forward. The carved walnut chair had bowed arms and legs with large standing maidens.

Fontaine’s Auction Gallery’s upcoming schedule includes a Cataloged Discovery Auction slated for April 25 in the Pittsfield gallery, followed by a major auction on May 30. For more information on either the sales or consigning, visit www.FontainesAuction.com or call 413-448-8922 and ask to speak with John
Fontaine, or e-mail info@fontainesauction.com.